Serving to Lead - How experinace the Leadership gifts in Service - Pt 2 Pastor Elder
Notes
Transcript
GREET EVERYONE-
Good morning loved ones!
If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
Our Vision:
We Desire to see every follower of Jesus well equipped and fully deployed on the mission of Jesus.
What mission? - This questions leads us to articulate His mission for His church in a simple way.
Our Mission:
Is to engage people into a multiplying relationship with Jesus!
LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND
Open it to 1 st Peter Chapter 5 as we unpack and unwrap verses 1-5 today as we continue in our newest series exposing part of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. In this Series we are navigating the Serving gifts. The Gifts of the Spirit that are specifically used to serve with!
And through serving we lead others with these Serving leading gifts.
And the Holy Spirit will Help us understand all the more and how we can experience the Leadership gifts in the service of Jesus with them!
PRAYER OVER SERIES
has been that as we Exposing What God says about these gifts that He gave to His church that we would come to realize that these gifts are given so that His Church and all its parts (better known as His Body) will Know Jesus, Love Jesus And therefore be compelled to serve Jesus , abiding in Him as our lives produce fruit for His kingdom and His glory.
PRAYER OVER MESSAGE
is that God would speak to all of us this morning through His word with clarity, so that we may all come to a full understanding of one of the roles of service that God has given His people to lead. And I pray as we come to know more about this role and it is walked out well although imperfectly, we will understand that this role, with in the Assembly of the called out ones will Equip the saints for the work of Service, Protect the saints, the called out ones, and we would understand the deep heritage that these gifting have among the people of God the earliest times when God called a people to Himself.
ENGAGEMENT –
You ever done something so long, the same way, that you actually forgot why you do it?
You not only don't think about why you do it - You also don't event think about the way you do it and the why behind the way that you do this one thing!
Ever have those things in your life?
Some people call them traditions.
I thought to myself: DO you even know what the word tradition means or have you just been using it so ling the same way you just took the definition for granted?
So I looked it up:
Tradition: According to Merriam and Websters
a belief, principle, or way of acting that people in a particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time becasue it was passed down from one generation to the next often through multiple generations.
SO with that I came up with the “Scotty Richerson” aka the Richapedia definition -
Tradition is doing something the same way and the same thing over and over again just becasue that is what and the way that particular activity was done.
In Other words if we were to ask a person: Why do you do things that way? The answer just may be out of tradition.
And if it is and answer out of tradition the answer may sound something like: I don't know that is just how I have always done it!
The problem is that not thinking and renewing in our minds and heart why we do the things we do and the reasons that there is a way that we do those very same things we so begin to forget that there was ever a reason - we forget the past.
When the past disappears, especially in the reasons why area of discussions that were made as to why we do things.
We soon forget why those things are best.
What can so easily happen to us, especially in the midst of things that just don't go right, we can began to ask bigger question as to why we have them in the first place.
Why Government? or maybe we should have a different kind
Why Law enforcement? or maybe we should de-fund them
and if we are teenagers - Why Parents? I cant wait till I am older
TENSION
The problem that this creates when we take this “that is just what I have always done, Into our relationship with Jesus is we can so easily forget.
Now don't get me wrong, We may never forget what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary, but what we can so easily forget is Jesus has set up an assembly of the called out ones for us to be an intricate and indispensable part of.
There are several other terms in Scripture used to describe this assembly of called out ones - The body of Christ, The Bride of Christ - The Church-
What can happen to us so very easily is we can be asked the question Why do we go to Church - and our answer might be “to worship - to which someone might say - You can worship any where - Or you might say - I'm not really sure its just something I have always done. To which that person might think - That activity has no value to them becasue they don't even know why.
When we go to worship and really don't renew in our minds and heart WHY - Especially when things are not going all that well.
What can happen is we can so easily think - DO we really need to go to church? Do we really need to be in a small group? What good is a Pastor? Why do we have Elders?
And then we can so easily begin to think that the term “WE are the church can turn into “I am the church and I don't need or want anyone else”
And we see this in our culture - and the enemy has done a fantastic job.
The younger generations the 40 and younger crowd - got out of high school - Started off adulting - Left the church and 80% of them did not return.
Not all of those 80% turned away from the faith - But what happened is they began to ask the questions - Why The Church? Why Community of faith when there are so many other options? Why do we need to Go to worship and be in small groups? And ultimately, especially when we see something go off the rails; Why do I need Pastors or Elders or Church leaders of any kind in my life?
SO what I pray the word of God will do for us this morning is to remind us as to the reason WHY we all, all of us need Pastors and Elders in our-lives.
As a Side note, I want to share the some what difficult time I has with this message as I have been thinking through it and working through what God would have me say.
So I pray I am careful with this am so that you do not take from this message a few things.
You see one of the things that I DO not want happen this morning is you hear me say: “You need a Pastor and Elders” when the truth is we all need Pastors and Elders. All of us and that includes the people who are Pastors and Elders. I need Pastors to Pastor me and Elders to be Elders in My life.
Secondly I pray deeply that What we all take away from this is that God has given Pastors and Elders for all of our benefit and it is not about a person but rather it is about what God has done. I get the fantastic privilege of serving Jesus in the role of Pastor and Elder and I am thankful for that, and love being a pastor /elder in peoples life for what ever season God has us together and I pray I serve Jesus well in leading you to Him - And so what I don't want you to take away from this is that I am the Pastor and Elder that you need. I am just one of many that God has serving Jesus in His church.
BACKGROUND
Peter - writes 1st Peter -
A little Reminder of Peter - He is the one whom Jesus renamed Peter - Jesus gave Him a new Identity - When He called Peter to Follow Him.
Peter is the One who Stuck His head into the Conversation Jesus was having with Moses and Elijah -
Peter is the one that went from Church leader to Satan on the same page of your bible.
Peter is the one who was seemingly always saying and doing something wrong. wrong place, wrong words, wrong thing, wrong timing.
He was the one who denied even knowing Jesus - Who allowed His fears and anxieties to drove Him to Cussing to convince others He did not know Jesus when He denied Jesus.
He is the one who raced John to the tomb to see if it was empty.
He is the one who Saw the risen Jesus on the water and began to walk in faith and then stated to drown becasue he took His eyes off of Jesus and looked at the storm.
He is the one whom Jesus reinstated back into serving Him after denying Jesus.
He is the one who became an eloquent preacher after the Holy Spirit came at pentecost and preached the first sermon and 3000 people came to faith that Day.
A church leader - Apostle and Catalyst for the Gospel going forward.
This is Peter - This is who writes this letter.
AN Imperfect, flawed, mistake driven, clumsy, tong twisted, relationship denying, with an intense fear of man, A simple Fisher of fish whom Jesus made a fisher of men!
He writes this letter to be read among a multitude of Churches.
This is one of the letters that is called a universal letter. It was a letter that was to be read in multiple places to multiple groups in multiple cities.
Peter writes this letter about the year 64 which is 30 years since pentecost. 30 Yeas from the launch of the New Testament Church.
The - Church at this time, now includes Jews and Gentiles alike and is more than likely encompasses hundreds of thousands of people,
It has the persecution causing attention of the Roman Government - and is more than likely spread a 1000 miles in either direction from Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit fell on the 120 in the upper room.
8 Years later in 72 ad - The Apostle Thomas will die in the far eastern coast of India some 3100 miles away from Jerusalem.
UNPACKING
And what Peter begins to address in Chapter 5 of His first letter to the churches He begins to speak directly to the Elders - Leaders of the Church.
When HE says In verse 1 of Chapter 5
1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:
Peter Exhorts
To Exhort means to ask for something with earnest plea. To urgently ask.
He says “I earnestly ask the Elders Among you.
Elders - In the language of the New Testament means - a person or persons who carry responsibility and authority in either the society or in religious matters.
Peter then refers to Himself as a “Fellow Elder” A co -laborer in carrying responsibility.
Peter then Clarifies Him Being an Apostle - One who witnessed the sufferings of Christ -
In the garden - On the cross and then He says - “As well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
What is the glory that is going to be revealed - Eternal life with Jesus for all who believe.
This is what he preached at Pentecost and what he references in the beginning chapters of this letter.
VVS 2
HE then states in verse 2 what he is urgently asking these other elders - these other ones that carry responsibility and are given authority over the religious things.
“Shepherd the Flock if God that is among you exercising oversight!”
Shepherd - in the language of the New Testament means “to lead with the idea of Leading to safety, to helping go in the right direction, to help by provide for.
Oversight - in the language of the New Testament has the meaning of “Seeing to it that… and the Idea of “Watching over…” this is carried further when the word comes with an expresses attitude which displays the responsibility of the community for the eternal salvation of all its members.
Right here in 1 Peter chapter five verse 1 and 2 - What Peter does is he uses two terms Elder and Shepard to urgently ask those who carry responsibility and Authority to Watch over the Eternal souls of those who belong to God, through faith in Jesus that are among them.
This is what Paul is speaking directly into when He writes to the Church in Ephesus - Explaining the roles and gifting that are given to Grow the Church, unite the church, and protect the Church when He says:
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Shepherds - Some of your translations it says Pastors - Its the same Greek word Peter uses to Exhort the Elder to Shepard the Flock of God!
Why Shepherds? -
1- Equipping the Saints to Grow the Church VS12
2 -Unity of the Faith - Uniting the Church - VS13
3 - Protect the Church: So we are not tossed back and forth by every waive of doctrine, Comma, OR by human cunning, Comma, OR by craftiness in deceitful schemes. VS14
Literal Shepherds of any flock of live stock - Help the new offspring come into this world - Grow the Flock - Keep the heard together - Unify the flock - Chase off any predators using the straight part of the staff to beat them away and the crook of the staff to keep the flock out of the ditch and low places. They protect the flock
What Peter has just done in His 1st letter in chapter 5 is tied the responsibility of Elders to do the Shepherding. To do the Equipping to do the Uniting to to the protecting.
This then leaves us the question of - Where did this framework of Elders and Shepherds come from?
Is this Something that Jesus did in the Church?
Now that we know why they are in the church, where did this originate.
Turn Back to numbers chapter 11 -
Here is what is happening way back at the beginning -
Here is why this is the beginning - This is at the beginning of God - Saving a people for Himself.
He has called to Himself a people - out of all the people - He has called thispeople to Himself to reveal Himself to those people so they will be His people and He will be their God -
He did this so that He would use them to reveal Himself to all of His creation.
Establishes the name of His people - Israel -
Those people ended up in captivity, oppression and slavery under Pharoah in Egypt -
He then Savews His people in a foreshadowing of Jesus come to Save people who would believe.
AS He is saving this people from the slavery and oppression fo the enemy of God and of Gods people They are traveling to the Land that He promised to them to their ancestor.
They get to be too big and to many for Moses - What was appointed by God to lead this heard of people out of slavery and oppression to the promised land.
and so what God does is he instructs Moses to enlist some help in navigating the challenges of a couple of million people traveling together for 40 years to their final home.
And watch what God tells Moses.
16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 17 And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.
Gether men who are already doing the role of Elder -
Have them stand with you - meaning have them be in unity with you in what you guys are all doing together.
Watch what God does -
He comes and talks to Moses and then anoints these guys with the Holy Spirit, Just like He had anointed Moses and what they were to do?
They were to lead the people in the way they should go so they get to the promised land -
They were to do this in Unity with Moses.
So that what we see here is the Role of Elder at the very beginning of God calling and saving a people to Himself.
Shepherding and Pastoring - which in the new testament is interchangeable was also foretold through the prophet Jeremiah -
The New testament Church was spoken of and those who would lead it were spoken of through this prophet.
watch what God says through the prophet as once again God people are in captivity - This time in Idol Worship and Paganism - They Have turned away from the One true God who has called them and saved them and they are in danger.
Calling them to Repentance and then seeing the wrath of God as Jerusalem and ultimately judah fell to the Babylonians.
Watch what God foretells through the prophet:
15 “ ‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.
700 years before the church of Jesus is launched and God said : I will give you Shepherds - Pastors - Elders - after my own heart -
Loved ones we must understand what GOd means when He says “After my own heart”
What He is saying is “I'm giving you Shepherds becasue of my love for you” Becasue I have a heart for you and wand you o have knowledge and understanding -
I'm am going to give to you these that are called shepherds -
Then Watch what god Says -
When you have multiplied and Been fruitful -
Jesus talks significantly about multiplication and fruit.
There will be no more desire or need for the ark of the covenant -
WHY?
Why do we as the new testament church have zero need for the ark of the covenant -
becasue the presence of God through His Holy Spirit dwells with in the believer and not in a temple made with hands.
SO why do we have Elders and Shepherds/Pastors in the Church -
Because God has from times of Old Established the Roles of Elders and Shepherds to
Equip Us filling us with Understanding and Knowledge - SO that we will grow and multiply and be fruitful in the land
Unify us - Keeping us together in Christ by pointing us to our Good Shepherd Jesus.
and protecting us as we all need to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus.
I Suppose this is one of the many reasons Paul Tells timothy in His first letter to timothy
17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
Notice the plurality of Paul's usage of Elders -
There is and needs to be more than one.
Paul is writing to Timothy as He is leading in the churches in City of Ephesus
He says “Let the Elders who Rule Well”
IN every letter of the new testament there is not knowingly implied in the role of elder “HOW but also in what Direction”
Look back to the 1st Peter chapter 5
Sheppard the Flock of God that is among you.
Not under compulsion - In other words “not becasue people talk you into it”
But willingly as God would have you.
You see loved ones - the role of working as pone of the Elders ie Shepherds must be a calling from God -
It can never be a Job you take but a calling one responds to.
Peter then continues in the How and the Direction -
Not for shameful gain - Meaning not for notoriety or fame or fortune -
but with energy and enthusiasm -
Not domineering but as an example.
Lead them to Jesus as you follow Jesus.
There is a reward that Elders and Shepherds receive at the Coming of our Great Shepard - an unfading crown of glory.
At the end verses of this passage Peter then brings in one of the most important characteristics of Servants who lead - humility.
THE GOSPEL CONNECTION
From the Beginning of God saving a people to Himself- He has given to his people a plurality of Elders also known as Shepherds -
To help us all grow up into the knowledge and understanding of Him who saves us so that we can lead others to Him.
To unify us together in Him - in Who he is and what He has done
To protect us all because we are all so easily wooed away form Jesus.
This is what the Gospel does -
It places us under the loving grace of our heavenly Father, through faith in Jesus, to make something new out of us - Something new out of what was old and dying.
This is part of what it is to be saved - Rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into His marvelous light.
He calls us into community with one another, to lock arms with one another to love one another and be on this never ending adventure and quest with one another to advance His kingdom, proclaim His gospel, Glorifying Him in every way, all that while being conformed in His image serving Him together, walking with each other in His grace and reconciliation as we are all imperfect, flawed, clumsy, mistake prone servants of His, pursuing Him and His kingdom in everything we do.
He places among us people who are His servants. Who help us by equipping us for His service to grow His kingdom
Who Unite us together in the essentials of the faith -
Who protect us from strange doctrine, from ourselves and from our enemy.
These Elder/Pastors that we all need to have in our lives. Loved ones! Even those who serve as Pastors/Elders need others who serve Jesus as Pastors/Elders in this lives as well.
There is not a single member of the body of Jesus that is excluded form this need in their lives.
HOW do we apply this?
I think there are two ways to apply these truth to our lives.
APPLICATION OR IMAGINE
1st - Find the Local Church that God is calling you to.
Find a Bible Teaching, Gospel Proclaiming, Saint Equipping Local Body of Jesus AKA a local church whose Elders/Pastors are imperfectly pursuing Jesus and Join. Application of this does not mean necessarily Stonewater Fellowship.
If Stonewater is the people God is calling you to then come’on Join.
If not then Find the people, find that local church and join.
2 - Know this that in many places there are Elders/ Pastors who are imperfectly serving Jesus but doing it faithfully and steadfastly.
The serve Jesus, pursue Jesus and serve Him by leading this phenomenal, Supernatural, Spirit filled thing Jesus created and commissioned called His body, His bride, The Church
One of the ways Elders/Pastors build and unite and protect the bride of Christ is by prayer.
They exist to pray with you, pray over you and pray for you.
The second thing to apply this message this morning is to pray with them.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Join the Elders/Pastors in prayer - corporately at prayer meeting and individually as they are open to pray.
The phenomenal, supernatural, spirit filled creation of Jesus that He loves and died for, called His Church exists for us to be a part of all our earthly benefit, for our sanctification in becoming more like Jesus and for our eternal benefit to serve Jesus together, bringing glory to Him as we all know that it is all for His glory and for His Gospel to be renewed and proclaimed as we all pursue Jesus.
COME AND PRAY WITH PRAYER TEAM